Marketing

5 Proven Strategies for B2B Social Media Marketing

Digital marketing is gaining traction in a number of industries, and business-to-business (B2B) marketers are in on that trend, too. Increased spending on online marketing is driving companies to try new and innovative means of getting the word out about their products and services — one area that's getting a lot of buzz with B2B marketers is social media.

The following five case studies lend insight into how B2B marketers can use social media to generate leads, create specialized communities, improve SEO, become knowledge sources, and strengthen marketing campaigns.

Let us know how your brand uses social media for B2B marketing in the comments below.

1. Generate Leads

There are two types of marketing departments — those that are cost centers and those that bring in leads and sales. Generally, the better positioned marketing department is the one that can prove it's bringing in money, not spending it without results. When adding social media into the mix, marketing departments must be able to prove success, and oftentimes lead generation and ROI are two measurements that upper management wants to see.

Regus, a global provider of workplace solutions, recently experimented with using social media for lead generation. While the Regus brand has a strong presence throughout the world, there was a lack of awareness in the NYC area about the convenient services and business solutions that the company has to offer. Regus chose Affect Strategies, a PR, marketing and social media firm specializing in business-to-business companies, to run their New York campaign.

Affect recommended an integrated campaign that combined social media, online video, an online sweepstakes and in-person events. The team focused on creating communities for NYC professionals, which resulted in a @RegusNYC Twitter feed and a Facebook Page. Along with these social accounts, the "Win an Office" sweepstakes was a great source of leads, as well. Lastly, the team put together New York-specific commercials, which were uploaded to YouTube. The one embedded above, for example, currently has more than 33,000 views.

Overall, this highly integrated campaign was a success unlike any other Regus had seen. The campaign increased leads to Regus' Manhattan locations by 30%, directly resulting in a 114% increase in revenue compared to the same time period in the previous year. Furthermore, there was a 33% percent conversion rate on leads generated through the New York landing page, compared to a 12% conversion rate on 2008. The success of the campaign also prompted Regus to have Affect implement similar campaigns in five additional markets in Q1 of 2010.

Sandra Fathi, president of Affect Strategies, attributes the success to being able to more accurately reach Regus' target audience through niche communities:

"Social media enables companies to engage directly with their target audiences. In many instances, these audiences self-identify online as interested in specific topics, themes, products and/or services and congregate in groups, message boards or communities. This allows companies to pinpoint their target audiences and engage with them in a meaningful way — providing insights, information, education and support. This type of focus is fertile ground for lead generation and driving revenue for business-to-business marketing."

The key to success in this case was connecting directly with target audiences in places that Regus hadn't considered, such as Twitter and Facebook. Furthermore, messaging was targeted for a specific region, which spoke volumes to New York professionals in need of offices.

2. Create a Specialized Community

Reaching the correct audience is one of the most important tasks in marketing — otherwise, you're just wasting resources on the wrong people. When you can't find the right audience, sometimes the best idea is to create a place for them to flock. That's what Kinaxis, an Ottawa-based supply-chain software company, did.

From 2008 to 2009, Kinaxis saw a 270% increase in web traffic to Kinaxis.com and a 320% increase in conversions (customer leads), as a direct result of introducing the community. From a business momentum perspective, Kinaxis achieved double-digit growth in its software subscription revenue, and for the first half of 2010, as compared to the second half of 2009, it saw the following results:

230% increase in community members

65.2% increase in web traffic to the community

26% increase in web traffic to Kinaxis.com, with the community accounting for about 40% of all new visitors

Kinaxis believes that creating the community allowed them to offer an online destination for professionals to bond over common industry problems and facilitate discussion on ways to solve those problems, which resulted in strengthening customer relationships. The community, along with the 21st Century Supply Chain blog, also enabled the company to increase exposure through social media and improve SEO, as content is shared through its social accounts.

3. Improve SEO

During the past year, Delivra, an e-mail marketing service provider, has invested in B2B social media marketing, including presences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and a corporate blog, dubbed eMailChatr. Since implementing and maintaining these properties, the company has seen a 70% increase in inbound leads, as compared to the prior year, and its SEO rankings for major keywords have jumped over 20 pages in one year.

In this case, a blog full of useful and targeted content, enhanced by syndication across various social sites and subsequent interactions with its community, led to Delivra increasing SEO and growing a reputation for trusted e-mail marketing advice.

Carissa Newton, Delivra's director of marketing, recommends that B2B marketers "Be realistic about your goals with social media and blogging — while these outlets can and will drive leads, there are other intangible benefits as well, like the SEO and brand awareness that make a tremendous difference." She also stresses, "Make sure that whatever you do, it is not with the sole intention to push information out ... [T]ake the time to respond and have meaningful conversations. That will increase your following tenfold. It's just like e-mail marketing: Don't be a blaster. Be a resource."

4. Be a Knowledge Source

Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB), a global, mid-size market research and consulting firm, uses social media to increase its reach within the market research community, demonstrate thought leadership, and increase the likelihood of being found via the Internet, according to Josh Mendelsohn, CMB's VP of marketing.

"In the past nine months alone we have seen huge successes through the combination of blogging, Twitter, Facebook, online press releases, downloadable reports/case studies and Linkedin," he explained. "The efforts have resulted in huge increases to traffic on our website (142%) and blog (308%) resulting in over 1,400 leads coming in to our sales team."

Mendelsohn believes that consistency in providing a source of useful resources has been key for the company. "Consistently creating relevant content to your blog, Twitter followers, [and] Facebook fans will help to grow your following," he says, "but this takes time and commitment. Don't go it alone. Build a team of regular contributors to contribute on a consistent basis."

5. Strengthen a Campaign

In some recent cases, SMBs have been known to exclusively use social media as a marketing tool, as costs are low and usually limited to the time spent cultivating an involved community. But in most cases, social media is being used as a supplement to existing marketing efforts. While it's not advisable to tack on social media to an existing marketing campaign, we recommend developing social media strategies alongside other marketing and communication efforts. This helps organizations maintain consistency in messaging to their communities.

"Make sure that everything is integrated and synchronized," said Doug Mow, SVP of marketing at Virtusa, a global IT services company. "The social strategy must be part of the online and PR strategy, which, in turn, are part of the integrated marketing strategy. Social is not an isolated activity."

"As a whole, marketing was asked to generate 50% of the new business pipeline in terms of number of deals and revenue. We exceeded that goal and viewed social as an integral part of our efforts, although we do not feel that the success can be attributed to any one particular activity... Every component of the strategy helped."

The lesson here is that social media can be a venue for enhancing a business's current marketing efforts, as long as the intention is to create a harmony between the various arms of marketing. Coordinate your marketing efforts so that each complements the others, and it should be smooth sailing.

These five case studies lend insight into how B2B marketers can use social media to generate leads, create specialized communities, improve SEO, become knowledge sources, and strengthen marketing campaigns. Let us know how your business uses social media for B2B marketing in the comments below.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.